


Life Can be Found in Peculiar Places

by Yeetboi



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Minecraft diaries - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Au’s, Beta read by my beautiful platonic wife, Canon-Typical Violence, Clay | Dream Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Dream Team SMP Spoilers, Fluff and Angst, Magic, More tags added soon, Rating May Change, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28403934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yeetboi/pseuds/Yeetboi
Summary: When dream gets kicked out of the SMP for exiling Tommy what else is he supposed to do besides befriend the mysterious quirky girl he meets at a village in the middle of nowhere?———WE HAVE A DISCORD!https://discord.gg/y5TsmbsCpTCome yell at me to update!
Relationships: Aphmau (Minecraft Diaries) & Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Aphmau (Minecraft Diaries) & Garroth Ro'Meave, Aphmau (Minecraft Diaries) & Laurence Zvhal, Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF) & Laurence Zvahl & Garroth Rom’Meave, Garroth Ro'Meave & Laurance Zvahl
Comments: 62
Kudos: 224





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I don’t care if the CC’s find this just don’t send it to them cause they are real people with their own lives and stuff :// and there probably won’t be a lot of Shipy stuff in this. it’s more angst, platonic ships, and following the Minecraft diaries lore!!

It had been a normal day in the SMP, dream was just waking down the prime path to L’manburg, he heard tubbo wanted to talk to him. It had been unexpected, with him exiling Tommy he thought tensions between him and L’manburg would be tense. Continuing walking down the path he saw all of techno’s propaganda posters. They were well drawn he’d admit but it was worrying that they were planning on taking out techno, he needed him around a little bit more for his plans.

Arriving to the now wall less L’manburg is certainly a new feeling, he had grown used too the high obsidian walls. He took his armor off and put it in the chest, he had said he recognized L’manburg and that means no armor. (He should’ve just put it in his inventory.) Walking past the van and into the main market area of L’manburg, he saw practically everybody there, Tommy, Phil, Ghostbur and Techno being absent for the obvious reasons.

Almost everyone was wearing diamond or Netherite armor, and had swords or axe’s by there side. All dream had on him was some steak, some dirt and a iron axe on him. His netherite axe’s handle got broken, and he had left it at home so he could repair it.

“Hey guys? What’s up.” In all honesty Dream was fucking terrified, his posture and voice didn’t show it though.

“Look, Dream we are fed up with your shit. You’ve exiled Tommy, started fights- no wars even. You’ve crossed the line.” Quackity said, venom lacing his tone and creeping the way into dream’s chest.

“We want you out of the SMP Dream.” George said, Sapnap nodding along.

Now that stung he knew he and his best friends could fight sometimes, but actually kicking him out? All dream could do is stand there frozen, mask covering his shock. 

He took a deep breath and spoke. “I’ll admit it, I did start some conflicts, but you guys have started some too you can’t blame this all on me, alive Wilbur blew up l’manburg! Techno’s gone on rampages!” a tear slid down his face, “Tommy has burned down houses, Schlatt even took control of L’manburg!” Dream said anger lacing his normally calm and decisive voice.

“None of those would’ve happened if you had been, better. Plus you are part of the reason alive Wilbur, blew up l’manburg! You have him the tnt, you stood by while schlatt was being a dictator!” Fundy said.

Who knew that one day his own fiancé would turn on him.

“You have 5 minutesto get out of the smp or we are hunting you down and giving you 3 canon deaths.” Tubbo said. 

Tubbo, the bee loving child, who was once so kind, his own fucking brother now a country’s leader kicking him out.

“You can’t grab any of your stuff either I’ll chop your hands off if you try.” Quackity threatened. 

Not wanting to test his claim Dream turned around and sprinted for his fucking life, he kept running even when elegant buildings turned to spawn, when spawn turned to a dark oak forest he ran past sheep, wolfs, flower patches, running on sand, dirt, stone, just running until he made it back to a forest and finally tripped on a fallen branch and fell face first. 

Hearing a sickening crack and feeling blood dribble down to his lips he knew his nose hit the ground to hard and is probably broken, mask not helping the fall. Finally registering where he was and what shape he was in. He was in an oak forest, if he listened closely he could here some animals near by. His lime green hoodie had a few tears around the arms where the branches had been sharp and unforgiving. 

Same thing could be said for his black jeans, all torn around his ankles and calf’s. Thankfully his black boots hadn’t been harmed except for a few new creases in the leather. His mask also had a few new scratches but no cracks, it could easily be repaired with some paint. 

He dragged himself to sit up against a tree and closed his eyes, just for a little while. A nap sounded nice.


	2. A village and a Friend?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream wakes up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! I had three chapters written out but the third got deleted cause I’m stupid but I still wanted to get something out so take two chapters at least!! <33
> 
> TW: suicidal thoughts

Waking up against a tree really doesn’t help your back, standing up was kind of a pain, but he got it done. Stretching out his arms and legs, now that his brain was starting to work and register the outside world, he noticed it was around sunset, he’d have to find and make shelter before mobs came out or he’d have to stay up all night.

(It’d probably just be better if he died, get blown up from a creeper no one in SMP would care) his breathing grows ragged limbs freezing up (there probably throwing a party right now since his reign of terror is finally over,) he suddenly too aware of the iron axe my his side (maybe he could finish the job right now the axe could end it so-)

Something moves in front of him making the leaves rustle. He shoots his head up freezing completely still, scanning the area with his eyes he sees someone in a green outfit with brown hair staring right back at him. Maybe he can ask him if there’s a village or at least a camp site near by.

The brown haired man starts running.

“Hey! Come back here!” Dream starts sprinting after him, it’s slowly turning to night if he’s not carefully he could be in trouble.

The brown haired man keeps running and dodging him, how? Dream doesn’t know all he knows is that he needs to catch up. Looking around as he’s running he notices a few trees he can use to boost his speed, quickly leaning to the left and pushing off and then to the right and pushing off he’s able to make up a few feet of distance on this mysterious person.

Suddenly the brown haired man stops, dream skids to a halt but the sudden change of motion makes him falls back on his ass and hands. He blinks and suddenly the brown haired man is gone and in front of him is a village with tons of villagers in a... well? Practically just drowning in water.

“Ugh..” Dream stands off and parishes the dirt off his pants and hands.

He walks into the village if he can find the leader or at least a motel he can probably stay here for the night.

He sees two guards talking in whispers while checking on the villagers every now and then. It’d be a good idea to avoid them for now, it’d be best to find an empty house and sleep there for the night walking behind the houses and farms he finds a tiny house near the end of the road, better then nothing at least, he walks around to the front door and walks in. He checks around the house for rotten wood or anything that could possibly harm him if he isn’t careful.

After inspecting the tiny house and deeming it safe enough for the night he locks the door and lays down on the floor to sleep.

(“We never cared about you, we just wanted to use you for your power.”) 

(“What makes you think we’ll ever miss you? You were a fucking menace, you terrorized us.”)

(“You were such a terrible friend, you should’ve died in the explosions.”)

(“You should’ve take Tommy’s place for the exile, we never needed you, in fact we should’ve of let you go we should’ve torn you limb from limb while you begged us not to kill you. And see what ugly face your hiding before your mask.”)

(“I bet he doesn’t even have a face.” They started laughing.) 

(Suddenly he was teleported back to the scene of them threatening to kill him if he didn’t run, he couldn’t move no matter how hard he tried to run away he was frozen, they were counting down HE. COULD’NT. MOVE. They drew their swords, pointed them at his neck, asking him for any last words, nothing came out, and they sliced his head off, their words all venom and their eyes unforgiving as dreams world turned black.)

He woke up with tears running down his face lips quivering, he threw a hand over his mouth to keep his sobs quiet, he knew it wasn’t true no matter how much his friends- no the other SMP members hated him they wouldn’t kill him. Right? 

Drying his tears and taking a few minutes to calm down and do a few breathing exercises, he finally stood up and stretched out, hopefully he can find some sheep and get some wool to make himself at least a half decent bed.

He unlocked the door and walked into the village, if he could get some supplies that would be great. 

That’s when he noticed a black haired girl running around and introducing herself to everybody. It didn’t look like she posed a threat, well no one in the village besides the guards did. When the black haired girl walked up to him he was definitely a little surprised, she was just staring at him, almost like she could see right into his soul. She was a bit shorter then him reaching up to about his chin. She shook her head and stuck out her hand.

“Hi! I’m aphmau, what’s your name?” She spoke.

“Umm.. hello there, I’m dream.” He said

“Oh is that your real name? And what’s up with your mask it’s really cool, could we be friends! Aphmau asked

A little taken aback it took Dream a moment to answer, “Yes Dream is my real name, that I know of, two I’d rather not talk about the mask it’s personal, and I don’t really know you? So I can’t say if we could be friends or not.” 

Aphmau hummed, “Hm then I guess you’ll have to get to know me so we can be friends! Let’s go the best way to get to know someone is hang out.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him out to the forest.

Dream contemplated getting out of her grasps and running the other direction, but- he didn’t want to be left alone again so he let himself be dragged along. 

Aphmau dragged him to the forest and gave him a wood axe, he looked down at the axe (he remembers this netherite axe nightmare, would everyone in the smp have burned his stuff already? He had worked so hard to get that axe it was his favorite tool, would they have burned all of his stuff? Try to get rid of every reminder of-) aphmau shakes his arm a little. 

“Hey, look at me please.” Aphmau says

He looks up, and that’s only when he notices a few tears rolling down his face.

“I don’t know what ever you were imagining but you were about to have a panic attack, if you don’t want to handle an axe you can go get stone while I get wood? Or we can just go back to the village and take a break.” She smiles at him.

Dream takes a deep breath, “No, no I’m good I can get some wood as long as I keep myself distracted.” 

“Lucky for you then! I’m a master distracter.” She says, Dream laughs a little, yeah he can do this.

They get to work cutting down oak and birch trees, aphmau and dream telling each other story’s, and fairytales, different pets they had and what’s their favorite food by the time they have a couple stacks of logs they’ve been giggling for hours, feeling like they’ve known each other all their lives.They decide to switch over to pickaxes and head back to the village, entering the mine that’s under the village and start getting stone, and they find some iron they grab it with their newly made stone pickaxes.

While Aphmau is placing torches around the cave and Dream is sitting down drinking some water, Aphmau speaks up, “I was thinking of trying to become the lord of this village. I mean they are having such a hard time I’d like to help out!”

Dream hums in thought, for the few hours he’s known Aphmau, she’s shown good quality’s the only downside would be how much she cares, and how trusting she can be. Maybe just maybe, if he becomes her guard or at least sticks by her side he can help prevent her from being to trusting. (It has nothing to do with how he feels like he failed the SMP he should’ve been there and not such a egotistical dick if he had cared just a bit more-) 

“Dream?” Aphmau asks

“Ah sorry I was just in thought, I think you’d make a good lord, if you ever need help I’m here, I have some previous leader experience and also I don’t trust you to protect yourself so consider me your first guard.” Dream says.

Aphmau laughs, “Pfft, my first guard? Alrighty then! I deem you knight Dream, guard of lady Aphmau.” She picks up a stick from the ground and knights him. They bust out into laughs. 

“I never knew you had lord experience?” Aphmau asks

Dream pauses, he knew his past was going to be brought up but he doesn’t know how comfortable he is with bringing it up again, it’d just be better to forget all the pain and hurt and betrayals-

“Hey it’s ok if you don’t want to tell me, you can be my extra mysterious guard!” Aphmau says. Dream smiles, yeah it’s better to not be alone.

After finishing up all the materials they wanted to grab they head back up into the village, inventory fulls, stomachs empty, and smiles painting their faces easily. 

“Hey Dream, where do you live in the village?” Aphmau asks.

“I uh.. haha I actually don’t, I had kinda just snuck into one of the houses for the night.” He says

“Pffft hmm we can find you a house! I’m room with this girl named emmalyn, I kinda took over the library.” Aphmau says.

Now it was Dream’s turn to laugh, he ended up rooming with someone named Brenden, directly across from the tiny house he stayed the night in but this time the house was bigger and had actual beds. 

Aphmau had shown him where she housed the villagers, the house he had previously stayed in was now a home for what Aphmau calls the ‘babes of the village’ he just laughed and aphmau laughed along.

After putting down some chests and furnaces in their respective houses, they decided to officially introduce themselves to the village. Especially since Dream had snuck in the night before.

They went to go meet the guards first, Aphmau practically dragging him by the arm the whole way there. 

“Hi! I’m Aphmau, and this is Dream.” Aphmau says then points to Dream who just waves in return.

“Hello, I’m Garroth and this is Zenix, it’s a pleasure to meet you, welcome to our humble village. Should you ever need anything feel free to ask.” The guard supposedly named Garroth says.

Zenix speaks up, “Yup! We’re the guards so try not cause trouble for us.” Garroth just elbows Zenix in the side, Aphmau just snorts in return a small smile finds its way onto Dream’s face.

They go around meeting a few of the other villagers and to learn the layout of the village, they end in the middle of the village and say goodnight to each other, promising to hang out again tomorrow. Going their separate ways.

Dream walks back to his and Brendens shared house, they are rooming together after all, body practically buzzing with happiness. He knocks on the door to make sure he isn’t interrupting whatever Brenden is doing. When all he hears is a come in, he does. He sees Brenden on the floor materials around him to make a bed and a few shelves.

“What are you building?” Dream asks.

“Hello there roomate!!” Brenden says, “I’m building us some beds and storage since we are rooming now.” Brenden is in the lefter side of the house with the inwards part of the house presumably being Dream’s part of the house.

“Need any help?” It’d be better if Dream got know his roomate since he could be staying here for awhile, now that he thinks about it. What is his plan for the future? He can’t go back to the SMP, maybe he could travel the world? For now he’s going to stay in this village for a while. 

“Yeah, that’d be a great help!” Brenden says.

Dream goes to his side of the room and puts his some of his stuff down into some chests, walking over to Brenden and sitting down and he picks up the instructions, yeah he’s going to be ok.


	3. Some water, the undead and the memory’s that come with

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Zombies and a bit of a fight scene (lil bit of gore)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

Green eyes stare down at the village below, he sits watching, he hears someone walk up behind him, sighing he waits for them to speak.

“Why are you still sticking around.” The new voice says.

“You were just supposed to see if the lord died, you weren’t ordered to stick around.” The voice says.

The other voice looks up following his line of sight to the one with dirty blonde short hair and the other with long dark purple hair, “Fine then stay quiet, do what you want too see if I care.” The voice turns and leaves not even looking back.

Green eyes find its way back to the two newcomers, something big- no something entirely magical is going to happen, and it’s going to involve those too, he just knows he would even bet on Irene. He wants to go see for himself, but for now he sits and watches.  
—————————-

They meet in the back of the village just like they promised, (and if that doesn’t make him light up with happiness, a smile spreading to his face. When’s the last time someone kept their promise to him? Too long he decides.) They decide to spruce up the village a little since it’s some what out of repair. Going to their respective houses and grabbing the materials from the other day they get too work, Dream works on making the wooden paths better, wider and just adding some paths in areas. Aphmau works in the farms, harvesting and planting the potatoes, carrots and wheat of the village. 

(Building the paths remind him of Eret and Fundy the two main builders of the server, he misses his fiancé and brother but he knows he won’t be able to see them again, Fundy’s wonderful coding and buildings or Eret’s magnificent castle builds, his mind wonders to how everyone in the SMP is doing as he builds, surely better then him right? Well they aren’t more then 10k blocks away from their home. Can he even call the SMP his home even more?)

He finishes the wooden path, and goes over to help Aphmau with the farm. It’s been a relatively peaceful compared to the SMP, there he always had to watch his back, whose territory he was in, who hated him at the moment and who would protect him? Never being able to just walk and think, always have a weapon near, the list goes on forever. The really only truly safe place on the SMP would be The Church of Primes, but it still feels iffy there. Being in a place where he can just hangout and farm with a friend? It’s heavenly. 

They go back to the mines to grab iron, it takes a few hours but they eventually find enough iron to make the both of them half of a set of iron armor, aphmau makes her self pants and a helmet while dream makes some boots, and a chest plate.

This time they go talk to two people named Molly and Dale, they find out Dale is another guard, and Molly is one of the proclaimed ‘babes’ that Aphmau named, Aphmaus cracking jokes and Dream is just throwing in some of his own. Village alight with happiness and excitement at the two new comers, they go around just talking and telling story’s to anyone who will listen and tell their own in return. At some point Aphmau goes back into her house to grab some food, Dream following behind her it turns into Emmalyn making snarky remarks, Aphmau dishing it back and Dream on the floor wheezing at the two’s shenanigans. 

They decide to explore more of the area around the village to just get a feel for the area if they ever needed to run away or just knowing where to get certain materials, they walk up a hill then down and find a beach, with two villages in the distance.

“Dream, Dream, Dream, Look!!!” Aphmau says shaking his arm.

“Haha I see, I see the village.” He says

“We have to go, right now.” Aphmau says.

“Aph I don’t really think that’s a good idea.., I mean we don’t even have boats.” He says

“First off, we can just go make some small boats right now, two, did you just call me Aph?” Aphmau says looking at Dream.

Dream with a light dusting of embarrassment on his face, “Uhh.. maybeee?” He sighs, “If you are totally set on going to the village then I guess I’m going too.” 

Aphmau cheers, “Alright let’s go grab the stuff to make boats.” 

“I think I already have enough oak on me to make us two boats actually.” Dream says as he pulls up his inventory. “As a matter as a fact I do.” Dream takes the materials out of his inventory while Aphmau puts down a crafting table and Dream makes them both boats. Packing everything back up into their inventory, they place the boats in the water and set sail for the village directly across from their own. 

It’s not a long trip but it does take a good fifteen to twenty minutes to get there. 

When the arrive you can say it’s a little bit of a shock to find out there’s just no fucking floor, and all the villagers are practically drowning in the ocean. The quicken their rowing pace and start placing dirt up against the houses so they can actually stand and not drown to death. 

When looking around Dream suddenly gets dragged by Aphmau to meet this person named Donna who Aphmau has invited to come back to the village with them. 

“Mhm don’t you worry your sweet little heads I’ll be right over tomorrow, just got to grab my things. Besides I bet a cozy little village on land sounds infinitely better then out drowning town.” Donna says, it’s weird Dream thinks, this is the first time he’s heard a southern accent. Aphmau is just smiling that she finally got a new person to come to the village. 

When they start boating back to their homes the sun is starting set and the moon is slowly rising into the sky, once they finnaly end up back at the village the moon is high in the sky.

A horde of zombies are trying to knock some doors down in the village, Dream pulls out his iron axe while aphmau grabs her iron sword. The zombies finally noticed the pair and started making their way towards them, 3 zombies going after Dream and Aphmau 5 going after Aphmau.

Dream took a step back, he didn’t have a shield on him so he’d have to be more careful instead of going in recklessly, the middle zombie was the furthest back, the right most zombie is the closest and the left zombie is in between the two, he takes a step forward and swigs his axe straight into the right zombies head, it poofed into rotten flesh, the two zombies were now much closer, the left zombie even being able to land a hit on him which took away a heart, when the zombie went to attack again he dodged right, grabbed the far back zombie swung his axe and knocked them both out in one go, disappearing with a poof.

Breathing heavily he turned around to see Aphmau faring ok, but a zombie was trying to pull a sneak attack, without think he ran and jumped bashing the zombies skull in with the bunt of his axe. Aphmau turned around to see Dream with zombie skin on his axe and silently nodded as a thanks before turning back around and focusing on the two zombies left, Dream took the right while Aphmau took the left. Aphmau stuck her sword through the zombies chest when it got too close for comfort, while Dream kicked his zombie back with his foot, it fell on the floor and with one fell swoop of his axe it also joined its brothers by poofing into some rotten flesh.

They both took a moment to catch their breaths, when their breathing turned from heavy to a more even pattern aphmau spoke up. “Heh, I’m really glad that I knighted you huh?”

Dream gave a weak laugh in return, yeah it’s good to finally be protecting someone instead of hurting them. 

They cleaned up their weapons leaving the rotten flesh on the grass and said their goodbyes, Dream walked into his house and Aphmau up the road to hers. 

Brenden was already dead asleep in his bed so Dream tried to be as quiet as possible, which wasn’t hard he was jokingly called a god for reason, like techno. 

He took his boots off, sliding them by the door before putting his axe away into his inventory and pulling some bread out of the chest. He ate silently on his bed before shucking off his lime green crop top hoodie to his black long sleeve crop top, leaving his jeans on, he was to lazy to switch into PJ’s anyway. His mask always stays on no matter what.

As soon as Dream’s head hit the pillow the world turned into a soothing black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fic lineup!
> 
> -MCD!Dream chapter 3  
> -Dream has nightmares (request from disc server)  
> -A found family MCYT fic (co-written with a friend of mine)


	4. The Past, and Choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A warning from a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I think I’m going to focus on doing longer word counts and focusing on one chapter at a time, once again sorry for the bit of a wait have the fucker as a treat!
> 
> (Thank you to by beautiful platonic wife for being my beta!!)
> 
> CW: ED referenced and suicide very lightly referenced!

Green eyes stared up at the house in front of him, flint in steel in hand, he knows what he has to do looking over to the window of the house, which is where a woman and newly born baby sits. He sighs.  
————  
When Dream woke up to the smell of eggs and bacon it was safe to say he was confused. When was the last time he even had breakfast? In the SMP it was always wake up, and make sure no one was going to try and kill you, if you happened to have some food in your inventory that was your breakfast.

He got up out of bed, and stretching on his tiptoes, could almost reach the ceiling. He stood, walking into where Brenden and Dream kept their cooking supplies, and was a little stunned to see Aphmau cooking while she and Brenden talked.

“Morning everyone,” he yawned, “Did I miss the party invitation?” Both of them looked over at him, “Morning Dream!!” Aphmau said, bringing over three plates of eggs and bacon to the table, while Brenden gave him a wave before digging in.

He stared down at his plate of food, (looking down at the one bite of the grilled cheese, Dream pushed it away his stomach already feeling nauseous from the one bite alone, it’s weird forcing yourself to not eat and then suddenly having to get used to it again. The wars were over and he didn’t have to worry about there not being enough food for his team and thus sacrificing some of his own, and he didn’t have to worry about his physique and how he’d be perceived as a leader. But still, he just couldn’t bring himself to eat. He stood up taking his plate with him, dumped it into the trash and walked out the door.)

Staring back down at his eggs, he carefully picked up his fork and ate, it wasn’t too badly cooked, and his stomach wasn’t feeling nauseous yet so this was a good sign. He lifted his head up to see Aphmau staring at him as she talked with Brenden about whatever they were going to be doing today.

“So I was thinking Dream, if we mine just a bit more we should be able to complete our iron armor sets!”

Dream hums “True, we’d also be able to get full iron tools if we’re lucky. Which will help us out greatly if we ever find diamonds, which will let us get netherite.”

“Mhm! So let’s get to it.” Aphmau picks up her plate and brings it over to their cauldron, Dream does the same, with half of his eggs gone and the two strips of bacon eaten.

While mining they stumbled upon nine diamonds and decided that they’d only use them if it’s absolutely necessary.

“Hey Dream.” Aphmau said,

“What’s up Aph?” Dream asked.

“I was thinking we could fix up some of the village houses, more specifically the layouts, like with Emmalyn’s and I’s house the door is in such a weird place, so if we could move the entrance and for the other houses expand the layouts I think it’d help out the village a lot!” Aphmau said.

“I agree, it can help the village out, but it comes down to the time and materials we have, like for your house it’d be pretty easy to move your door, but for the other houses we’d need the residents’ approvals, the correct materials, and especially the time. No matter how much neither of us want to admit it, we aren’t the best builders either.” Dream said laughing at the end.

“Very true- hmmm, maybe we could hire some people to come out to the village, or seeing if anyone in the village’s skill is building things.” Aphmau said in thought.  
After that they started to get to work. They only needed a bit more iron then they’d be set on their armor.  
———  
Finally finished and wearing their new iron armor, Aphmau fully decked out while Dream has his helmet in his inventory. He also had learned his lesson and carried a shield in his inventory.

They start walking towards Aphmau’s house, going to figure out how, and where on the house they can move her door too.

After a little rearranging and a lot of bruises later, they finally moved the door out on to the actual pathway instead of over a cave.

Aphmau, now finished hammering all the nails into the doorframe, taking one last look at their hard work nodded happily.

“It looks good!” Aphmau said with a smile. 

Dream looked over, “Yeah it really does.”

Looking over his shoulder he saw Zenix walking up the path towards them.

“Hey Zenix what do you need?” Aphmau asked.

“Garroth sent me to go get you guys, he says he wants to warn you about something.” Zenix says.

Dream hums in thought. A warning- it could be a good one like, ‘avoid these areas of the woods because you could die.’ Or it could be a more threatening kind like, ‘stop messing with our village or we’ll cut your heads off.’ Kind of warning.

“Well we better not keep him waiting then.” Aphmau says, as Aphmau started walking it’s like her whole aura changed. It went from a ‘Are you lost? Hold my hand and we’ll find them together’ to a aura of confidence, bravery and best of all kindness. All Dream could do was keep up and try to match her vibe, becoming more of a ‘fuck with her you fuck with me vibe’ and he knew from experience (sad experiences) that people could fear him and try to avoid him at all costs.

Zenix quickly caught up and took the lead, taking them to wherever Garroth was at the moment. It wasn’t a long walk, they eventually found Garroth at the makeshift guard tower, (It really was just an old house made out of cobble with a second floor added to it). Looking up Dream sighs, whatever was going to happen in there he can tell it’s going to leave him exhausted.

“Well, let’s go find out what Garroth needs.” Aphmau says a determined look on her face. Dream takes a moment to breathe, before following Aphmau up to the second floor. He climbs up the ladder before Aphmau, just in case Garroth decided that he didn’t like the things they are doing to the village. When he looked at Garroth as he came to the top he felt and saw a more worried vibe, then a ‘I’m going to kick you out’ vibe. “Thanks for coming. But I have a warning for you,”

Seeing the look on their faces Garroth laughs a little, “You look like children who think they’re in trouble- relax, you’re not in trouble, it’s just a friendly warning. Things might happen around this village, around you two the more you do for this village, the more people will grow aware of you, of this village, and just people in general. Being a lord is a dangerous job in the first place anyway, you have to worry for the people in your village now, not just for their safety but for their feelings as well. But still, I thank you two for watching over this village.”

Aphmau looks a little shocked but smiles, “Aw thanks Garroth! But for everything else we’ll deal with that when the time comes, what do you mean by changing for good or bad?”

“Alas I cannot elaborate but If you want answers, go check out the old lords house, it’s all I’m allowed to say.” Garroth says.

“Well then guess we have something to do tomorrow Dreamy.” Aphmau says looking at him, all Dream does is laugh.

Aphmau starts climbing down the ladder, but Garroth stops him before he can go down. 

“Hey, I wanted to thank you for watching over Lady Aphmau and protecting her, while my job is to protect her I also must protect this village so I thank you again, it makes me feel better that another Lord won’t die under my watch.”

Dream just smiles and looks down towards the ladder then back at Garroth, “Yeah don't worry, Aphmau won’t be dying anytime soon. Not on my watch.” He ended it with a threat hanging in the air, not towards Garroth, but towards the universe, if the universe even tries to hurt his new friend, by Irene was he going to find a way to make the universe **hurt back.**

Garroth smiles, a little shocked at the ending tone but he rolled with it. After saying their goodbyes Dream climbs down the ladder and hops down onto the first floor. Walking out the door he looked around there was the forest around them to his left at the moment and the middle of the village to his right. And yet he didn’t see Aphmau, he sighed, knowing Aphmau she probably saw something in the forest and ran after it. Taking a left he starts scanning the tree’s for her and low and behold there she is chasing after a group of goats. Dream breathes a laugh at that, and goes in after her.

“Dream!! Look at them they’re soooo cute!” Aphmau says practically making Dream’s eardrums bleed. The two goats had walked up to Aphmau in the time Dream was making sure his ears weren’t bleeding, one was white with grey spots and short horns, the other one was just plain black with bigger horns.

“Aphmau I’d be careful around them they could attack you at any moment.” All Aphmau does is laugh as the two goats bump their horns on her legs and roll over to get pet.  
———  
Aphmau had eventually laid down in the grass, while Dream was sitting on the grass, his back up against a tree. Aphmau had the white and grey spotted goat laying on top of her legs, while the black goat had come and sat across Dreams legs. Aphmau had also come up with names for the goats calling the grey and white goat, billy at first but then finding out the goat was a girl and renaming her to Billina, she named the black goat Yawn. 

Dream liked the names, it reminded him of Ghostbur and his sheep friend. _He wonders if Ghostbur and Friend are doing well, it doesn’t matter now though. He’ll never know._

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Aphmau speaking up, “Hey Dream?” Dream just hummed in a questioning way.

“Do you think I should continue to be a Lord? I’m not even really the official lord here I just help out, plus what if I mess up they’ll all hate me and I’d have to find a hole to crawl in and die.” Dreams about to speak up before she continues, “I mean it’s such a huge responsibility. I’m probably not even the right person for this job, you’d be way better, you’re confident and a good fighter! And you always give me the best advice. It's like you were born for this job.”

For some reason _‘born for this job’_ struck a chord in him, he had experience from the SMP on how to be a leader. The good and bad things that could hap- no he wasn’t a leader, he was a _dictator._ that’s what he was wasn’t he? Just a dictator to them? He can feel an oncoming panic attack, but he needs to be there for Aphmau at the moment he can focus on himself later, most likely at night in the forest where no one can hear him sob.

“Aph,” he takes a breath. “Yes, being a lord takes responsibility, and yes, you are going to make some bad choices sometimes, but we’re going to be here for you, not just me but the village. Yes, being a lord means taking care of your village but that also means that the village takes care of you.” He can feel tears wanting to drop from his eyes but he won’t let them, he has to stay strong in front of her. _they didn’t take care of him when he tried his hardest but did he? Did he try his hardest to protect them?_ “You’ve already done a lot of good things for this village that I wouldn’t have even tried to do Aphmau, you're such a good ‘not’ lord because you have a heart Aph, you have empathy.”

Aphmau looks shocked, before letting out a little giggle, she moves Billina off her laugh and stands up, walking over to Dream and sitting down next to him, and hugs him. The hug only lasts for about ten seconds, but that’s all the time Aphmau needs to say ‘thank you’. She drops her arms but leaves her head resting on Dream's shoulder. Dream hesitates for a moment before putting his head on top of hers. He sighs feeling very calm, Billina comes back over and lays down next to Yawn. It’s quiet and peaceful, _relaxing, when’s the last time he relaxed?_

Aphmau speaks up, “So ‘Aph’ huh?” She says, Dream can’t see her face but she knows she’s got a full born grin on her face. “Oh shut up,” He says. Aph snorts “Nah, I like the nickname anyway.”

They stay there just a little while longer, Aphmau taps his shoulder so she can stand up, she stands up and stretches before leaning down and offering Dream her hand for him to stand up. He quickly moves Yawn off his lap and grabs her hand getting pulled up. He stretches too, he doesn’t know how long they stayed there but he does know that the sun is dangerously close to setting in the sky.

“Let’s get back to the village, m’lady.” Dream jokingly does a bow and sticks out his arm for her to grab. Aphmau returns it with a curtsey and grabbing his arm. 

They walk back to the village giggling about stupid experiences they’ve done in their childhood, Dream tells the story of him cutting off some of his sister’s hair, Aphmau tells him about how she once ate a spider on accident.

Without paying attention to where she’s going, Aphmau accidentally bumps into Zenix after laughing hard at a particularly funny thing Dream did once. “Oh I’m so sorry Zenix I didn’t see you there!” She says. 

Zenix just laughs and says, “You’ve attacked a guard I’ve got to get payback now.” He says, his tone sounds half serious but his eyes filled are with laughter, He drops his sword on the ground and Aphmau drops Dream’s arm to start running away, cries of laughter and asking Dream to help her while Zenix chases her around, all Dream can do is lay down on the floor and suffocate because his lungs can’t get enough air from his wheezing.  
————  
Once Zenix and Aphmau come back, laughs still following their desperate breathing, Zenix speaks up, “I don’t want to ruin the mood here but I wanted to add on to what Garroth was saying earlier,” he looks towards Aphmau, “Listen if you ever need anything I’ll be here for you no matter time or day, our last lord... he was murdered and I don’t want that happening to you.” He looks towards Aphmau with determination in his eyes, _Dream ignores how Zenix reminds him of Tommy and Ranboo combined._

“Exactly Zenix,” Dream speaks up, looking to Zenix then at Aphmau, “We’re your guards- we’ll be here to catch you if you fall, or just needing to steal food from us.” Dream ends with a laugh. Aphmau just smiles before pulling both Zenix and Dream into a hug. Smiles light everyone’s faces.  
————  
Dream and Aphmau go to the farm, needing some food to make dinner and deciding they wanted to use some food from the farm. 

While Dream was pulling up some carrots and potato to make a soup he notices Aph laughing, he turns around to see a sheep trying to get at the strawberries, She looks Dream straight in the eyes (as close as she can since he has his mask) and says “Oh no, Dream this is.... _sheer madness_ Dream just groans and throws some wheat seeds at her while Aphmau falls on her side from laughing to hard, wheat seeds stuck in her hair.

Content with the amount of vegetables Dream grabbed, and the spices and mutton they have at home, they start walking back, placing torches and killing mobs if they try attacking them. Finally walking back to his and Brenden’s house, Aphmau coming along for dinner.

Walking in the door they find Brenden relaxing reading a book, he smiles and gives them a warm welcome. Aphmau goes to sit over there and talk with him while   
Dream starts up the furnace, and washing his hands to begin cooking, he cuts up the carrots and potatoes and seasons them with salt and garlic. Putting them to the side, he grabs some thyme and Rosemary and throws it in a pot of water and puts it on top of the furnace. 

He has some mutton which he seasoned with normal salt and pepper, cooking in the furnace. After the water starts boiling he puts the vegetables in and pulls the mutton out before it can fully cook and puts it in as well. At this point the whole house smells amazing, and Aphmau and Brenden’s stomachs are rumbling in anticipation. He let it simmer for about 15 more minutes to blend together, and then it was done. He grabbed a few bowls and spoons and brought all of it to the table.

“Dream, I didn’t know you could cook!” Brenden said, mouth full. Dream just smiled, “Well, learning how to cook is important; you don’t know when you’d need to know a certain skill.” Aphmau just hums in agreement, all of them rather focused on eating the food in front of them.

Nighttime soon fell, and Aphmau said her goodbyes, going back to her and Emmalyn’s shared house, yawning all the way.  
Dream and Brenden both bid each other goodnight as well and each went to their side of the house to sleep.  
————  
Aphmau was woken up with the sound of footsteps running through the village. Luckily for her, Emmalyn’s house was close to the outside of the village so she could hear these things, but someone running at night? 

That’s not normal, so ignoring all common sense she quickly put on a coat and boots over her PJ’s and steps outside, looking around for the source of the noise, spotting something running into the forest out of the corner of her eye. “Well curiosity killed the cat,” she says walking into the forest. She grins, “But satisfaction brought it back!”

She walks for a few minutes listening and looking for anything that could’ve been the culprit of that noise. She hears a twig snap not to far away in the forest and turns left, going towards the culprit.

What she wasn’t expecting to see was Dream, back up against a tree knees pulled up to his chest and while his head rested his knees, she also wasn’t expecting too see tears running down his face. He hadn’t even pushed his mask up above his face to let him breathe better through sobs.

“Oh Dream...” she doesn’t know if Dream had noticed she was there or not, but he didn’t flinch when she sat down next to him and pulled him into a hug, he was still in a crawled up ball but at least Aphmau could put her hands around his shoulders.

“Dream, do you want to tell me why you’re crying?” Aphmau asked, Dream only shook his head and tried to curl up in a ball even more. Aphmau sighs but doesn’t protest, “Can I touch your hair?” She asks not wanting to upset her friend, he gives a weak nod in response. She just gently rocks him, petting his hair waiting for him to calm down, she knows that it can be hard to speak when crying, or just a personal choice not to speak.

It took approximately 16 minutes (Aphmau counted) for Dream to calm down, didn’t mean that he would be verbal though. She tried asking again but he just shook his head as Dream focused on taking deep breathes, he still hiccuped occasionally but he had mostly calmed down. Dream was suddenly hit with a wave of shame as he realized Aphmau was holding him, if he got attacked out here he could defend himself, but Aphmau? He didn’t want Aphmau getting hurt because of him, he was supposed to do the opposite.

Dream tries to stand up and get away from Aphmau but Aphmau only grabs onto Dream’s shoulders with a death grip. “Dream, why are you trying to leave?” Aphmau says, she wasn’t going to give up until she knew what was making her friend sad. Dream just sighs, he sat back down from his half stand, his head on Aphmau’s shoulders while she now has her arm slung across his shoulders.

“It was just a bad dream, nothing to worry about.” He mumbles, Aphmau just sighs and continues combing through his hair. “Dream, if it causes you too run out here in the forest then it must of been pretty bad,” Dream goes stiff, “You don’t have to tell me if you want but just know I’m always here for you.” Dream stands up too fast for Aphmau to catch this time, “NO! I’m supposed to be your guard and protect you, I don’t need any help, it’s already bad enough that I was pathetic enough to let this dream get to me.”

Aphmau just looks shocked, which then turned mad. “What, Dream! Do you really think like that? Because you’re completely wrong!” Aphmau says, standing up too, “You're not pathetic for having feelings and it was my own choice coming out here and most of all!” She says raising her voice a little bit, “You’re my friend first before my guard, so just this once let me protect you too.” Her voice grows quiet, “Because I'm going to catch you when you fall too, I promise it,” she takes a breath and sits back down. “Now are you going to tell me what that dream was about?” She says like she didn’t just rock Dream’s shit.

All Dream could do is stand there frozen, just thinking, anyone on the SMP would’ve mostly likely agreed with him. That he was being a pathetic whiny bitch over a dream, but Aph? She didn’t try to black mail him or want him to do something, she had the perfect opportunity to tell one person what just happened and he could rarely get a job again. But she didn’t, she stayed and she’s wanting to listen. It’s a weird feeling, knowing someone is willingly staying just because they see you as a friend. (Wasn’t that what his team was? They _were his friends right?_ ) Aphmau just looked up at him and smiled and patted the spot on the grass next to her. All Dream could do was sit next to her and try not to let the tears flow again just because someone genuinely wanted to be his friend.

“Now, tell me about your dream?” Aphmau asks. Dream just sighs, he really wasn’t ready to tell her about what he did in the past yet, so he’d just leave out a few details.

“Well you see, it was someone I knew in the past you could say,” he took a shaky breath “and well I was a very bad person to the kid, I know what I did was wrong but at the time I felt it was necessary, even as fucked up as it was _fun_. He tried um,,, jumping into lava and I feel like it was all my fault, it is really. I’d get it if you’d want to not be my friend after hearing this.” Dream sat there fidgeting with his hoodie’s strings, maybe he’d switch up his outfit so he could be less recognizable if anyone in the SMP were to ever come out this far.

Aphmau just hummed in thought before replying, “Whatever you did to make him consider that must have been bad, but I also have done some bad things in the past. I am in no way saying what you did was necessary, or that it was the most horrible thing you could’ve ever done to another human being, since I don’t know the full story and it sounds like you’re not ready to share yet, but I do know is that for right now the past is behind us, and you are my friend.” She smiles.

Dream feels like crying again, but he doesn't. He has to stand strong in front of her and save whatever pride he has left. What he does do is hug Aphmau like the world was ending, she may not know the full story, and maybe she would never know the full story, but as of now, they could just enjoy being friends.

“Now, it’s getting pretty cold out here and I’m tired so let’s go back to the village?” Aphmau asks after yawning. “Yeah, let’s get back now.” 

Aphmau stands up and Dream does too, walking back to the village in a comfortable silence both too tired to make conversation, and plus, they had a lord's house to explore tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A semblance of plot? In this fic? Unheard of  
> —  
> Sorry if the characters are a lil occ, but I wanted to talk about Aph not saying Dream was bad after he told her about the dream, she is being in the middle right now since she doesn’t know the full story, she doesn’t know what Dream did and she doesn’t know what this kid did either so she’s just trying to be the best friend she can to Dream right now!!


	5. History Locked Away, Shared In Writing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> History hidden, but not lost. Abandoned, to be found again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look we got a discord you should join B) 
> 
> https://discord.gg/r3Y3RgmD58

Aphmau and Dream walked back to their respective houses in silence. Dream’s head was still trying to grasp onto what was a dream and what was reality. God he just wanted to crash so bad, he almost fell asleep in the forest and who knows what could’ve happened if Aphmau hadn’t found him. _He made a mental note to thank her and to try and find out more about his new friend._

He opens the door to his house made of cobble and its wooden roof, as quietly as possible and slips in. He deafens the noise of the door by moving slowly and holding it with his hand if it were to creak. He gently takes off his boots and places them on the ground with caution, as if any noise could wake Brenden from his snoring-filled slumber. He could hear Brenden’s soft snores filling the room, keeping it from being eerily quiet. He calmly walks forward to his shared half of the house, passing the kitchen and the makeshift table they had made and added to make the house feel less empty. He takes care to avoid creaky floorboards as he walks. 

Pulling back his blankets he half slips, half flops into his bed on his stomach. Exhaustion hits him in waves; he’s more tired than he thought but revealing part of your angsty past to a person you’ve known for a total of five days does that to you. He pulls his arms from his sides and reaches up to unclip his mask, it comes off with a snap, and he places it next to him on the bed. He moves around until he's on his back. He turns his head and looks back at the smiley mask. No matter how much or how long he stares it’ll never give him answers, _and he never expects it to._ With a sigh he turns one more time, now on his side, facing away from the mask, and pulls the blanket up and over his face, and closes his eyes.  
_____

Dream wakes up to the smell of eggs, the sound of sizzling bacon and quiet laughter, the feeling of his stomach distantly growling at the thought of food, however, is what makes his brain wake the most. In the end, it’s also what makes him decide to get up as well. He moved in his sleep, his face now buried in his pillow and the blanket has slipped down to his lower back. He reaches over and pats the bed till his hands find his mask. He sits up facing the wall, pushing his hair off his face. He places the mask over his face and turns to get out of bed, making sure to pull the blankets back up to make his bed look relatively made. 

“Morning roomie!” Brenden practically yelled, in response to which Dream simply gave a half-hearted wave in return, tiredness showing in his posture as he stretched his hands above his head and walked over to grab some of the coffee Brenden had brewed earlier.

“Ready to go Dream? I can’t wait to see what could be there!” Aphmau said, bouncing on her feet. Dream just nodded his head, walking back to his bed to slip his combat boots back on, his mask a heavy reminder of what happened last night, and the things he’d done back then. At the time he was too blind to his friend’s suffering, he was high off his power, and oh boy was it addicting, he thought what he was doing was right, ignoring the suffering of his people on the SMP. It’s stupid, he realized, he was a dictator to the people he was supposed to protect. Look where that got him, forcefully exiled, killed if he were to ever step a foot too close to its domain. As ironic as it sounds he misses them... he misses his _family._ He’s very thankful he found a new place to call possibly home _he didn’t want to get his hopes up too soon in case he’d have to leave this place_ and he was especially thankful to find such an amazing friend like Aphmau. 

But at times like these he wonders what would happen if he was allowed to stay on the SMP, would he still be a monster? For fucks sake they were his friends, and he had treated them as pawns in a chess game. Or would he have just run away on his own terms from pure boredom, the game growing out of his control? He doesn't know, and y’know what? Right now he just can’t bring himself to care, he won’t let his friends here get hurt. _by him, or otherwise._

Shoes on and stomach full, Dream stands up and takes his bow, sword, and axe out of his inventory, putting the axe and bow on his back and strapping his sword on his hip, shield in his inventory in case it was needed. They didn’t know what they’d find there and had no idea what it could look like, Aphmau being the exception since she’d occasionally pass by the house while getting wood. He walks back out to the kitchen, now awake, to begin processing the world around him, and sees Brenden sitting down at their table, Aphmau putting a few fruits as well as steak into a bag because sometimes things are just easier to carry without wasting the inventory space.

“Ready to go?” Aphmau says excitedly. “I grabbed us some snacks! We can probably have a picnic after we explore.” 

“Yeah, I got everything I’ll need, and you do remember where this place is right? I don’t feel like getting lost today.” Dream says, concluding with a snort.

Aphmau just rolled her eyes in slight amusement. Once Dream and Aphmau said their goodbyes, and Brenden made sure to double-check that they had everything they needed, they stepped out of the house and into the cold morning air. To start their trip all they had to do was climb the hill and then go down and to the left, and so they started climbing. The sun was shining through the leaves, lighting up the grass on the hill and making the forest to the sides light up with life, a soft breeze swaying through the leaves, birds chirping, filling the air with melodies and songs humans could not understand, while flowers swayed along. It was almost… healing in a way, the calmness of the village here. So very different from all the death and destruction in the air. Or every piece of land taken by buildings on the SMP, they were always amazing builds and he knew that it takes time and talent, but sometimes nature needs a natural balance with mankind.

They reached the top of the hill and to say it was only breathtaking would be an understatement. The top of the hill had two or three trees but looked beautiful nonetheless the lush green grass, and the dandelions adding pops of color almost as bright as the sun itself, which illuminated the hill, creating waving shadows under the trees. Across the other side of the hill was a vast ocean, sunlight twinkling off the waves that acted as a mirror and shining light across the land and sea. There was a little indent in the land that created a cove where a school of fish and dolphins were swimming, it’d be a perfect spot for a dock. If you squinted in the distance you could see some distant villages floating in the water.

“Woah,” Aphmau said.

“That’s certainly one way to put it.” Dream responds.

Aphmau turns around to face the village again, “This is the best spot! It overlooks the village, the sea, and the forest surrounding us- it’s perfect!”   
The wind picks up a bit, ruffling their clothes, causing Aphmau's long black hair and Dream’s short dusty brown hair to blow to the side. Dream shivers a bit; the wind felt nice, almost like a soft reassurance. “Well, I do believe we have a deserted house to visit, don’t we?” Dream says turning to face Aphmau, Aphmau just walks up to him with a grin on her face and taps his shoulder. “Tag, race you!” Aphmau then turns around and bolts down to the left of the hill, straight towards the lord’s house.

“Oh, it is so on.” Dream says, grinning, chasing after her. Instead of going through the forest, he hops on the top of oak and birch trees. Branches bending down from his weight, giving him the momentum needed to jump to other trees. He was able to see Aphmau through the twigs and branches, just a purple blur running on the ground beside him. Dream laughs and jumps from tree to tree causing leaves to fall and making Aphmau slow down a little and lookup. “How the hell did you catch up so fast?!” Aphmau yells incredulously up to the blur hiding among the leaves. Dream smiles. “I’m a speedrunner. I’ve also survived four hunters chasing me at once, I do this shit for breakfast.” 

Aphmau starts to slow down her pace once the house comes into view but Dream only speeds up, jumping off the closet tree and landing just on the edge of the roof, fingers grasping at the shingles as he lifts himself up and turns so he faces the forest and sits. Smirking, he looks down at Aphmau below him.

“Looks like I win!” he declares cheerfully as she gives a small huff.

“You cheated by climbing on trees!” Aphmau says, trying and failing to act pissed as the smile on her face gave her away.

“To be fair, you never said we couldn't run on the top of the trees.” Dream jumps down from the top off the roof to the ground feet tingling from the drop. Looking at the house, you could see time had done its toll. Parts of the house were just missing or rotted badly from past storms, some parts even charred or burnt black. The windows were cracked and broken, some glass shards still laying in the grass, not to mention the door was just gone. 

“Well, let's see what we find,” Aphmau says, walking inside the floorboards creaking under their weight after not being used in what seems like years. The inside was pretty similar- there's some wood and coal stacked up in piles up against the walls, and a few cobwebs in the upper corners of the room, and that was just to the left of the house. In the back main part of the house he saw more coal and woodpiles, but in the corner, there was a baby crib in the corner, the wood was charred and had just started to rot. It looked like it’d survived many things.

“Look, I think I found something,” Aphmau says, grabbing Dream by his arm and dragging him into the rightmost back corner of the house.   
“It looks like a journal of sorts. It might give us some clue of what happened here! I also like this desk podium thingy.” Aphmau says waving at the stand the book was located on. The journal looked burnt around the edges, and the name on the front was crossed out. The leather was cracked and creased and felt very rough to the touch. The desk wasn’t doing any better; it looks like it had also suffered some fire damage, and it looks like there were some cuts in the desk. Most likely from a struggle.

They open the book and Aphmau starts reading out loud,

“Day one: Just arrived in a regular Minecraft Village. These villagers are special though, I can date them.” She reads out loud. Dream gags.   
“Has this person ever learned human decency?” Dream asks.   
“Apparently not.” Aphmau says as she rolls her eyes.

She continues reading, “Day two: The villager named Milfina likes me a lot! I think I’m going to try and talk to her more…” “Human decency, come on!” Dream throws his arms up into the air. Aphmau just sighs.

“Day three: Milfina and one of the guards are acting “different”... in a good way! This is kinda cool.” Aphmau reads. Dream snorts.   
“Oh he totally fucked them both.” Aphmau gasps and hits his arm, screaming “DREAM!” Dream just laughs more.

_pages four through twenty five have been ripped out_

“Weird.. Oh! There's one more page.” Aphmau says, “Day twenty six: Why…? This is my world. NOT his. Milfina…”

“What could that be about?” Aphmau asks, “I don’t know but it sounds like he was upset about something.”   
Dream’s mind was slowly whirring. “So what could it-” 

_CLANG_

Without warning, Dream feels something slam against the back of his head, sending a wave of pain pulsing around his head. The momentum throws him to the floor, and his vision starts to rapidly darken. He tries to open his mouth, to make a sound, but the pain leaves him in mute agony. The last thing he hears is something give a soft _thud_ as it falls next to him, before his consciousness slowly fades away.

_____

“Hm, this could be bad.” A black haired man hums.

“What do you mean?” A lady with white hair and purple eyes questions.

“She’s slowly becoming an almost... substitute lord to this village.” He stares down at Aphmau, he leans down and takes her helmet off. Looking back over to the other awake person in the room, “and we know what happened to the last lord don’t we?” A small smile creeps up his face.

The girl hums, “Yeah, we do.” She pauses.   
“Do you think Vlayd’s sticking around because of his history with this place?”

“Who knows why he stays here Sasha, and honestly I don't care, as long as we all do our jobs it’ll be fine.” He pauses, and looks back at the two unconscious people in the room. “Hmm, it’ll be bad if people start to regain their memories because of these two though.”

The girl now named Sasha strides over to the dropped diary on the floor, “Well Gene, we can at least prevent that for a little while longer, if not forever.” She says, grinning. 

Gene slowly smiles. “I like how you think,” He drops the helmet in his hand by his feet, a clang rings out of the room. “Let’s get out of here.” He drops out from the opening in the window they had made to get in the house in the first place, as Sasha follows him out.   
_____  
His eyes shoot open, soft light pooling into eyes that felt as if they hadn’t been opened in forever, temporarily making spots dance within his sight. He gets the feeling of oncoming headache, and groans. He doesn’t know where he is and he can’t afford the headache messing with his head at the moment. He sits up and takes a couple deep breaths, just to calm his nerves and try to remember what happened. He probably needs to stand up soon just to wake up his tingling limbs.

Dream feels his vision blur as he tries to force his body to listen to his thoughts and stand. He wants to figure out where he is but his body is making that a bit difficult. He sighs and with resentment leans back down and closes his eyes. The headache is here now and is full force, pounding against his skull. _“How helpful,”_ he murmurs into the empty air. Something stirs next to him, supposedly woken from the noises he made whilst moving. He mangages to turn his head to the left and find the culprit. It’s Aphmau, and from the look of it, it seems they both got caught by surprise and had been swiftly and efficiently knocked out.

He leans over to look back at Aphmau. It's starting to get worrying that she hasn’t woken up yet. It could mean a bad concussion, and sleeping with head injuries is never a good idea. He looked a bit closer to see if he could spot any blood in her head or on the floor. Her hair was tangled up and fanned out on the floor, but no blood or noticeable wounds were visible. She most likely would have some bruising on her head for a while.

Dream reaches over and starts lightly shaking her shoulder to wake her up. Aphmau groans and blinks her eyes in rapid session, confusion painted on her face before she spots him and her posture relaxes.

“What happened?” She groans, and Dream hands her the helmet which she puts it back on the top of her head.

“I’m not sure, I just remember something hitting my head then it all goes dark,” he replies, thinking back to the whole situation, which is giving him a headache and isn't helping anyone at the moment. Can his head not buzz and cloud over for one second? He shakes his head and hopes it gets rid of the feeling. _It doesn’t._

Aphmau stands up on wobbly legs that haven’t been used in a couple of hours. “I think my legs are asleep,” she says.   
“My whole body is asleep.” Dream replies with a snort.

Dream notices Aphmau pause, head turned to where the diary on the table would be. He stands up, curious as to why the air has grown tense. He pauses when he sees the diary missing from the table.   
“Huh,” Aphmau questioned “That's weird, that the diary would just disappear like that.”

‘Ok no big deal, it probably just dropped from your hands when we were knocked out.’ Dream thinks. He glances around the floor near the desk and where he found Aphmau and sees... nothing. At all. Everything is where it was when they were awake, except for the book. He looks around the whole house trying to find some clue as to what could’ve caused the book to go missing. Then his eye catches something.  
 _There!_ He spots a hole in one of the windows, large enough to at least fit a decent sized human if they tried.

“Hey Aph, there’s an opening in the window here. With us being knocked out and now the diary being stolen, I feel we might be being spied on,” he ponders, suspicion lacing his voice. Aphmau hums.  
“I don’t think we need to worry about it. This house is pretty much abandoned. It could be natural from weather or someone exploring before us, but if it makes you feel better we can keep an eye out, but for now I just want to get back home.”   
Dream nods and follows as Aphmau walks out of the house. The sunset lights the path to the village.

_____

As they climb down the hill and the moon starts to rise up into the sky, they notice Zenix making a round around the village. “Want to talk to Zenix about what we found?” Dream questions. 

“It can’t hurt,” Aphmau says with a shrug. She starts walking toward him, tiredness showing in her steps, and to be fair, Dream wasn't much better.

Zenix notices them, and walks over to meet them, “How’d it go?” He asks, cocking his head.  
“It went pretty well,” Dream replies.   
“We found the diary of the last lord, it was interesting to say the least.” Aphmau adds. 

“Oh?” Zenix questions 

“Yeah, but as we were reading we got ambushed, when I came too, Aphmau's helmet was off and the diary was gone. What’s even weirder, is that window looks like it was broken into.” Dream says.

Zenix hums, a questioning look on his face. “We can keep an eye out to be safe, but I think you two need to get some sleep, you've practically collapsed on the spot. I also believe Garroth has something to show you but that can wait. Don’t worry, I’ll let him know. Now shoo and get some rest.” He says, smiling. Dream snorts a little as Aphmau just makes a bee-line for her and Emmalyn’s house. He waves goodnight to Zenix, walking back to his and Brenden’s house in tired silence when he hears a russell in the leaves. His head shoots up, eyes scanning the area when he spots a flash of a forest green scarf. His eyes narrowed, contemplating chasing after whoever it was, but in the state he’s in, it wouldn’t be worth it.

Deciding against it and instead, opens the door, gives a half hearted wave to Brenden, and crashes, not caring if he still was still in his mask and shoes. He doesn’t even care to get under the blankets.

_____

Dream groans and stretches as he comes back from his dreams of TNT and fire, the dream already fading from memory. Propping himself up, he notices a blanket covering him, and his shoes _most likely kicked off in his sleep_ lying at the foot of the bed, and his mask untouched. A small grin creeps his way on his face. He makes a mental note to thank Brenden for being a good friend. 

He climbs out of bed and makes another mental note to see if he can buy some PJs or at least some more clothes soon; practically living in black jeans and a faded lime green hoodie probably isn’t healthy but god damn was it comfy. He walks over to the kitchen and grabs some toast and a bit of orange juice and contemplates what’s on the day’s to do list.   
First they had to go see what Garroth needed, then the farms probably needed a bit more harvesting. They’d have to see if there were more farmers in the village who could help out. Maybe he could talk to Brenden, it might be nice to get to know his roommate better as an added bonus. 

He ends up finding Brenden hanging around the part of the wheat farm, placing some torches and replanting the seed. Aphmau most likely isn't up yet, and Dream does have some time to kill, so with a shrug Dream walks over to help out Brenden. “Need any help?” He asks, Brenden stumbles back a little with a yelp, then chuckles when he sees Dream.

“Haha, sorry didn’t see you there! Anyone ever tell you, you're really good at sneaking up on people?” Brenden says

Dream gives a half hearted chuckle, “Heh, yeah I used to get that a lot.” 

“You asked if I needed help right? Hmm, you could help by harvesting the rest of the wheat while I replant seeds.” Brenden said, Dream just nodded and went to go start on his job when he paused.   
“How do you know how to do this?” He asked, to which Brenden responded.   
“Well, I was raised on my family’s farm and we weren’t the richest so I picked it up from them to help out as much as I could. I also dabble in building and I can somewhat sword fight, just enough to protect myself. So I guess you could say I’m a jack of all trades!” Brenden replies, eyes not straying away from the seeds.

“What about you Dream?” Brenden asks. Dream hums. 

“We’ll I don’t quite remember much from my childhood, just bit’s and pieces. The earliest I remember is probably when I found this nice area with some of my old friends, we were probably fifteen... sixteen? When we first found it, we played there almost every day. Years later when it was time to move out, we all knew that we just had to live there.”

Honestly he missed the start of the SMP, hanging out with Sapnap and Bad and just messing around in the lake, and then later George and then came the community house. It doesn’t matter now. _The community house is gone._

“That’s kinda sad,” Branded says, giving a small airy laugh, “But, you have us now! Aphmau and I, and the whole village. I’m sure you can make some totally awesome memories here with us!” He says.   
Dream smiles. “Yeah, new memories for sure.” 

After getting into the pattern of harvesting wheat and replanting the seeds, jokes and light-hearted conversation fill the air between the two. They make sure to avoid the heavier topics from earlier, when Aphmau finally wakes up and is curious enough to come poke at Dream too join her and See what Garroth wants. Dream just laughs and says his goodbyes too Brenden.

Aphmau leads Dream to the empty field next to the village where they find Garroth talking to... someone. Dream isn’t sure who it is, but by the looks of it probably some wandering trader.

“Hello you two, this here is Paul,” Garroth says, “He comes from a more advanced village then ours and is here too to sell some things that can be useful for farms.” 

“It is nice to meet you both, I’m from an organization that travels the world and sells what we have from our village! I hope my wares will be able to be of use. I’ve been talking to Garroth here about setting up some trade routes, Let me show you what I have with me.” The farmer, now named Paul, answers. He brings them over to a couple of boxes in the open field where he shows off some orange trees, rice, and strawberries, on the other side it's a diamond per three seeds.

Aphmau leans into Dream a bit and whispers, “I don’t know about you but I definitely don’t have enough money for that.”   
Dream just sighs before looking up when Garroth signals them over.

“I know what Pauls sells can be a little expensive but I wanted to give you this.” Garroth hands them nine diamond blocks, “This is from the last Lord’s village funds… I- I trust you, use this for the good of the village alright?” A smile creeps it’s way into Garroth’s voice. Aphmau just nods and drags Dream back to hold some more seeds.

They grab about nine seeds of each kind, costing about one diamond block exactly.   
“Great, more gardening.” Dream snorts as he and Aphmau walk back to Brenden to plan where to start planting.

“Ooo, what’s that?” Brenden asks, as they show off what they bought from Paul. “Oo! Very interesting, we usually don’t have these in our area, want some help planting them? Say, go grab a hoe and some bone meal and I’ll teach you!”

“Thanks! I’m hoping that with more food sources it’ll open up more things for the village and for crafting in general.” Aphmau says. “I think I have some bones and a hoe back at my place, wanna come with?” She turns to Dream.   
“Sure, I can offer an extra pair of hands.” he said, shrugging.

Walking into Aphmau and Emmalyn’s shared house Dream can almost feel the irritation radiating off Emmalyn. Aphmau goes to the back of the house and starts searching through the chests looking for what they need or could use.   
“Uh, Hi nice to meet you?” Dream says giving a wave to Emmalyn.   
“Hmph, just hurry up and get out of here, if your Aphmau’s friend you're probably just as irritating as her.” She replies. 

“...okay then.” He says turning back to see Aphmau walking back towards them. 

“Emmalyn, just leave him alone,” she said. 

Emmalyn rolls her eyes. “But! I found us all the farming things, as well as this!” She shows off two gold medallions with small diamonds glowing in the center and some black ribbon making a handle. “They’re pet medallions, you can use them to tame wild animals, come on! Let's see if we can find any animals too tame while we’re farming.”  
_____

They end up keeping the wheat farm on the left next to the house Brenden and Dream are staying at, and replacing the one on the right with two rows for strawberries and rice, saving the orange tree for later planting.

Dusting off some of the dirt from his jeans, Dream looks up and sees Aphmau staring off into the woods, staring at a wolf and a brown tabby cat with stripes and a white stomach.   
“Dream,” She whispers, “I’m going to try and tame one with the medallion, which one do you want?” Dream slowly walks over to the edge of the forest where Aphmau is.   
“I’m fine with whatever.” He whispers back, in response to which Aphmau nods an ‘okay’ before luring the wolf over with some of the leftover bones, then places the medallion around the wolf’s neck. 

The medallion glows a bright blue, before breaking, and fading into light blue particles, the wolf coming up and rubbing up against Aphmau's leg.   
“Nice! Now too think of a name… hmmm, I’m going to name you…. Thorgi!” Dream smiles and turns his attention to the tabby cat. He doesn't have any fish on him but he can try and lure the cat over by calling it. Clicking his tongue and scratching the grass seems to lure the cat’s attention over to him, quickly picking up the cat and putting the medallion around its neck. “I think, I’ll name you Patches. For the different colors in your fur.”

“Come on Brenden’s probably wondering where we went, and we don’t need him too send Garroth and Zenix after us,” Aphmau said, walking back with Thorgi now in tow. Dream just laughs and places Patches back down on the ground and follows, with Patches now trailing behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm sorry for not updating in a while, I'll try and update quicker but I can't promise anything! Buttttt we do have a discord that you can join to get updates when I will be posting!
> 
> https://discord.gg/r3Y3RgmD58

**Author's Note:**

> This is just the prologue so it’s going to be short! Once again I’m not the total best at angst but I will try and get better! And I’d like to say one episode will be a chapter! So I will probably release 3-5 chapters at a time (if I can)! If you ever have any questions fill free to ask and please leave a comment or kudos it makes my day a lot!!!


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